Cloud security platform

ABSTRACT

A data security system, including a security manager computer making network API calls to a service that performs data-exchange transactions for end users, the API calls remotely controlling the service so that the security manager computer accesses an outgoing transaction that has already entered the cloud-based service, by generating one or more security platform rules that are applied by the service and cause the service to automatically transmit the outgoing transaction to an inspection location prior to transmission of the outgoing transaction to a destination, and a data inspector operative to inspect data of the outgoing transaction in the inspection location for data leakage, wherein the security manager computer further controls the service so as to transmit the outgoing transaction to the destinations when the data inspector clears the data, and to perform a remedial action regarding the outgoing transaction when the data inspector does not clear the data.

PRIORITY REFERENCE TO PROVISIONAL APPLICATIONS

This application is a non-provisional of U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 62/271,234, entitled NON-INLINE METHOD FOR BLOCK-AND-INSPECT BYREVOCATION-RESTORATION SYSTEM, and filed on Dec. 27, 2015 by inventorsRoy Rotem, Gil Friedrich and Avraham Zelovich, the contents of which arehereby incorporated herein in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to data security for cloud-based services.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In today's work environment a major part of data communication is doneover computer networks. Data needs to be inspected for presence ofmalware, and for presence of sensitive data. Often, the inspectionprocess is not immediate and is resource-intensive, yet the receiverdesires to prevent access to the data until the inspection completes andthe data is allowed to continue its regular course.

Common examples of inspection of data include:

-   -   e-mail systems must check that all incoming file-attachments are        safe from computer viruses, phishing schemes or other malware;    -   file sharing systems must check that files are clean from        malicious content before being accessed or being shared with        other parties;    -   messaging/collaboration systems must ensure that data flowing        between entities does not leak sensitive information;    -   systems that share sensitive-data often need to encrypt that        data upon send and arrival.

Reference is made to FIG. 1, which is a simplified block diagram of aprior art security system, in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. FIG. 1 shows an enterprise data center 100 thatprovides various data exchange services to enterprise employees. Thedata exchange services include a collaborative document managementservice 220, such as MICROSOFT EXCHANGE SERVER® developed by MicrosoftCorporation of Redmond, Wash., USA, and a file sharing service 230, suchas DOCUMENTUM® developed by EMC Corporation of Hopkinton, Mass., USA.Employees 110A, 1108 and 110C access these services using any of avariety of devices, including inter alia a smartphone, a laptop computerand a desktop computer. Also shown in FIG. 1 is a firewall 150 whichscans incoming and outgoing data for malware and for leakage ofsensitive data.

Firewall 150 scans incoming data scan before the receiver has access tothat data, using proxy technologies that often performblock-and-inspect. Specifically, network traffic between a sender and areceiver must flow through firewall 150, which inspects data and, if thedata is cleared, forwards the data to the receiver. Firewall 150 isoften a store-and-forward device, which blocks the flow of the trafficuntil inspection completes. Other store-and-forward devices includemail-relay, routers, proxy-servers, software agents and other inspectionmodules. This type of inspection is referred to as being inline. Inlineinspection techniques are described athttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_packet_inspection.

Conventional inline block-and-inspect techniques suffer from severaldrawbacks, including:

-   -   Inline systems cannot fully support a fail-open mode, and        introduce an additional point-of-failure to services 120 and        130.    -   Block-and-inspect introduces additional latency, during which        traffic is re-routed to an inline device and then back to        services 120 and 130.    -   Introduction of inspection entities into a network disrupts        normal operation of other components of services 120 and 130.        For example, an added email mail transport agent adversely        impacts anti-spam filters used by an e-mail server, because an        original source IP address is no longer visible.    -   Traffic that is encrypted cannot be inspected easily by inline        systems.    -   Inline systems increase network-latency, and negatively impact        the end user experience.

Even worse, in today's off-site environments such as cloud/SaaSservices, firewall 150 cannot inspect traffic, because traffic oftenflows over a public-network to computing and storage systems that theenterprise does not own or control. Moreover, today's end users mayaccess these services from any location, not only from an enterpriseoffice. Some enterprises try to force traffic through a proxy to ensurethat the traffic undergoes inspection, but this leads to difficulties ofmanaging endpoint proxy configurations, and of overcomingnetwork-topology limitations.

Reference is made to FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a prior artdata security system that gets bypassed by end users of cloudapplications. Shown in FIG. 2 are enterprise data center 100 andfirewall 150, and a variety of cloud-based data-exchange services thatrun in a cloud computing center 200, the services including acollaborative document management service 220, such as OFFICE 365®developed by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., a file sharingservice 230, such as BOX.NET® developed by Box.net, Inc. of Palo Alto,Calif., and an e-mail service 240, such as GMAIL® developed by GoogleInc. of Mountain View, Calif. End users 210A, 210B and 210C access theseservices, bypassing firewall 150, using any of a variety of devices,including inter alia a smartphone, a laptop computer and a desktopcomputer.

An enterprise's sensitive files are now in the enterprise cloud, and maybe shared with external users; and malicious files may be enter orreside in the enterprise cloud. An enterprise, in fact any business,large or small, and even an individual using cloud services, requiresprotection against malware, against advanced persistent threats, againstanomalies, against insider threats and against data leakage. Anenterprise may require data sanitation, endpoint compliance, sharepolicy management, security information and event management (SIEM),ticketing integration, and audit compliance. Cloud service providers donot always offer such comprehensive protection and management, and suchprotection and management is not covered by service level agreements.

Because of these drawbacks enterprises must compromise between inlineprevention systems and non-inline detection-only systems for which thesystem sends alerts but cannot block/prevent a security breach fromoccurring.

It would this be of advantage to provide a robust security system thatprovides the requisite security, yet overcomes these drawbacks ofin-line block-and-inspect systems for today's cloud/SaaS environments.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention provide robust security systemsthat overcome drawbacks of conventional in-line block-and-inspectsystems for today's cloud/SaaS environments. These systems are essentialnot only to large enterprises, but also to business, large and small,and to individuals who use cloud services.

Embodiments of the present invention provide non-inline preventionmethods, which prevent end users from accessing data during aninspection phase until access is cleared, while not being inline.Because they are not inline, these embodiments overcome the drawbacks ofexisting inline systems. Because they block access to data until thedata is cleared, these embodiments overcome drawbacks of detection-onlysystems.

Embodiments of the present invention use network application programminginterfaces to remotely control cloud-based services, including interalia e-mail, file-sharing, collaborative data processing services.

Embodiments of the present invention protect against malware and dataleakage for both incoming and outgoing data transactions, such as interalia a new file that is uploaded or downloaded or shared, or a newe-mail that arrives or is sent. The data transactions may beinter-enterprise communications, between employees of an enterprise, ormay be communications to or from sources external to the enterprise.

There is thus provided in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention a data security system, including a security manager remotelycontrolling, via a network application programming interface, acloud-based service that performs data-exchange transactions for endusers, operative to cause the service to prevent end user access toincoming transactions so that the security manager accesses the incomingtransactions prior to end users being able to access the incomingtransactions, and a data inspector operative to inspect data of incomingtransactions for security clearance by invoking one or more contentscanners, wherein the security manager is further operative to cause theservice to restore end user access to the incoming transactions, whenthe security inspector clears the data, and to cause the service toperform a remedial action vis-à-vis the incoming transactions, when thesecurity inspector does not the data.

There is additionally provided in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention a method for data security, including remotelycontrolling, by a security processor via a network applicationprogramming interface, a cloud-based service that performs data-exchangetransactions for end users, causing, by the security processor, theservice to prevent end user access to incoming transactions, includingcontrolling the service so that the security processor accesses incomingtransactions prior to end users being able to access the incomingtransactions, inspecting data of incoming transactions for securityclearance by invoking one or more content scanners, when the inspectingclears the data, then causing, by the security processor, the service torestore end user access to the incoming transactions, and when theinspecting does not clear the data, causing, by the security processor,the service to perform a remedial action vis-à-vis the incomingtransactions.

There is further provided in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention a data security system, including a security managerremotely controlling, via a network application programming interface, aservice that performs data-exchange transactions for end users,operative to cause the service to prevent transmission of outgoingtransactions so that the security manager accesses outgoing transactionsprior to transmission of the outgoing transactions to theirdestinations, and a data inspector operative to inspect data of outgoingtransactions for data leakage, wherein the security manager is furtheroperative to cause the service to transmit the transactions to theirdestinations, when the security inspector clears the data, and toperform a remedial action vis-à-vis the outgoing transactions, when thesecurity inspector does not clear the data.

There is yet further provided in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention a method for data security, including remotelycontrolling, by a security processor via a network applicationprogramming interface, a service that performs data-exchangetransactions for end users, causing, by the security processor, theservice to prevent transmission of outgoing transactions, includingcontrolling the service so that the security processor accesses outgoingtransactions prior to the service transmitting the outgoing transactionsto their destinations, inspecting data of outgoing transactions for dataleakage breach, when the inspecting does not discover a breach, thencausing, by the security processor, the service to transmit the outgoingtransactions to their destinations, and when the inspecting discovers abreach, causing, by the security processor, the service to perform aremedial action vis-à-vis the outgoing transactions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be more fully understood and appreciated fromthe following detailed description, taken in conjunction with thedrawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a prior art data securitysystem;

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a prior art data security systemthat gets bypassed by end users of cloud applications;

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of a cloud security system for endusers, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of a cloud security system for anenterprise, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a simplified flowchart for a method for cloud security, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a simplified flowchart for a method for setting rules forcloud security, in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 7 is a screen shot of a security stack interface, showing aconfiguration of services and data inspectors, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 8-13 are respective screen shots of dashboards displaying resultsof several content scanners for six cloud services, in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a screen shot of a main dashboard displaying overall resultsfor several cloud services, in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 15 is a screen shot of an analytics interface for cloud services,in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a screen shot of an alerts interface for cloud services, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 17-20 are self-explanatory simplified drawings of various policiesenforced by a cloud security system, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention; and

FIGS. 21-26 are self-explanatory simplified drawings of variousworkflows performed by a cloud security system, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

For reference to the figures, the following index of elements and theirnumerals is provided. Similarly numbered elements represent elements ofthe same type, but they need not be identical elements.

Table of elements in the figures Element Description 100 enterprise 110end users 120 Microsoft Office software service, enterprise-based 130Box.net file sharing service, enterprise-based 150 firewall 200 cloudcomputing center 210 end users 220 Microsoft Office software service,cloud-based 230 Box.net file sharing service, cloud-based 240 Googlee-mail service, cloud-based 300 cloud security platform 310 securitymanager 320 data inspector

Elements numbered in the 1000's are operations of flow charts.

LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX A is a listing with application programming interface (API)calls, for implementing an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, systems andmethods are provided for non-inline security systems for cloud/SaaScomputing environments.

Reference is made to FIG. 3, which is a simplified block diagram of acloud security system for end users, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention. Shown in FIG. 3 are enterprise data center 100and firewall 150, and cloud-based data-exchange services that run incloud computing center 200, the services including collaborativedocument management service 220, such as OFFICE 365® developed byMicrosoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., USA, file sharing service 230,such as BOX.NET® developed by Box.net, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., USA,and e-mail service 240, such as GMAIL® developed by Google Inc. ofMountain View, Calif., USA. End users 210A, 210B and 210C access theseservices using any of a variety of devices, including inter alia asmartphone, a laptop computer and a desktop computer.

Also shown in FIG. 3 is a cloud security platform 300, including asecurity manager 310 and a data inspector 320. Security manager 300remotely accesses the various data-exchange services 220, 230 and 240using their respective application programming interfaces (APIs).Security manager 300 may itself be a cloud-based system. Security manger310 and data inspector 320 may or may not reside on the same computer oreven within the same cloud. Data inspector 320 may be, for example, itsown cloud service.

Security manager 310 and data inspector 320 include programmable dataprocessing, storage and communication circuitry for performing theoperations described below and with reference to the flowchart of FIG.5.

Reference is made to FIG. 4, which is a simplified block diagram of acloud security system for an enterprise 100, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 shows cloud computing center200 and cloud-based data-exchange services 220, 230 and 240. FIG. 4 alsoshows cloud security platform 300, including security manager 310 anddata inspector 320.

Enterprise 100 generally has enterprise level subscriptions for itsemployees to data-exchange services 220, 230 and 240. Enterprise 100itself uses a firewall 150 to access data-exchange services 220, 230 and240. However, employees of enterprise 100, such as end users 210A, 210Band 210C may access these services from locations outside of enterprise100, such as from their homes. Since these services are cloud-based, theenterprise has no direct control over them.

Reference is made to FIG. 5, which is a simplified flowchart for amethod 1000 for cloud security, in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. Method 1000 is practiced by security manager 310 anddata inspector 320, to provide security for incoming and outgoing datatransactions for services 220, 230 and 240. Many of the operations inFIG. 5 are performed via services 220, 230 and 240 themselves; namely,security manager 310 uses a network application programming interface(API) to control a service and thereby cause the service to performvarious operations. Although method 1000 relates to both incoming andoutgoing data transactions, it will be appreciated by those skilled inthe art that separate methods may instead be used for incoming andoutgoing data transactions.

Briefly, at operation 1005 security manager 310 monitors one or moredata-exchange services, such as one or more of services 220, 230 and240. At operation 1010, security manager 310 ascertains the scope ofinspection configured by an administrator, as explained in detailhereinbelow. At operation 1015, security manager 310 optionallydiscovers in real-time occurrence of a new incoming or outgoing datatransaction within the service, as explained in detail hereinbelow.Whether security manager 310 actively discovers the new data transactionat operation 1015, or instead relies on services 220, 230 to do so, atoperation 1020 security manager 310 causes end-user access to the newtransaction to be temporarily prevented, as explained in detailhereinbelow, if the new transaction is an incoming transaction, orcauses transmission of the transaction to its destination to betemporarily prevented, if the new transaction is an outgoingtransaction. Operation 1020 ensures that security manager 310 accessesdata of the new transaction prior to end users and recipients being ableto access that data. At operation 1025, security manager 310 optionallycauses recipients to be alerted that the new transaction has beentemporarily prevented. At operation 1030, security manger 310 retrievesthe data of the new transaction. At operation 1035, data inspector 320inspects the data of the new transaction, as explained in detailhereinbelow. At operation 1040 a determination is made as to whether ornot the data of the new transaction passed the inspection of operation1035. If so, then at operation 1045, security manager 310 optionallycauses the new transaction to be marked with a special marker,indicating that the transaction passed inspection. At operation 1050,security manager 310 causes end user access to the new transaction to berestored, if the new transaction is an incoming transaction, or causesthe new transaction to be transmitted to its destination, if the newtransaction is an outgoing transaction. Otherwise, if the data of thenew transaction did not pass inspection, then at operation 1055,security manager 310 causes a remedial action to be performed vis-à-visthe new transaction.

Operations of the flowchart of method 1000 are now described in detail.

Operation 1010

At operation 1010 security manager 310 ascertains the scope ofinspection configured by an administrator. The administrator configuresthe inspection so as to be applied/not be applied to specific users,specific groups of users, or to the entire enterprise. The administratoralso configures the inspection so as to be applied/not be applied tovarious types of files including inter alia

-   e-mail attachments;-   compressed files such as WINZIP® files;-   editable documents such as Word documents, EXCEL® spreadsheets and    POWERPOINT® presentations; and-   multi-media content such as audio and video content.

Operation 1015 (Optional)

At optional operation 1015, security manager 310 discovers in real-timeoccurrence of a new data transaction within the one or moredata-exchange services, such as inter alia a new file that is uploadedor downloaded or shared, or a new e-mail that arrives or is sent. Thenew data transaction may be an inter-enterprise communication, betweenemployees of the enterprise, or a communication to or from a sourceexternal to the enterprise.

It will be appreciate by those skilled in the art that embodiments ofthe present invention have the advantage of being fail-safe; namely, ifsecurity manager 310 fails then the enterprise does not lose its accessto services 220, 230 and 240.

Inter alia, operation 1015 may comprise, respectively, one or more ofthe following:

-   -   (i) services 220, 230 and 240 sends an event notification to        security manager 310;    -   (ii) services 220, 230 and 240 forwards a message to security        manager 310, when a data transaction occurs;    -   (iii) security manager 310 polls services 220, 230 and 240 for        occurrence of data transactions.        In one embodiment of the present invention, polling is performed        using a network API for the service.

Operations 1020 and 1050—Incoming Transaction

At operation 1020, security manager 310 causes end-user access to a newincoming transaction to be temporarily prevented, ensuring that securitymanager 310 accesses the new transaction prior to end users being ableto access that transaction. At operation 1050, security manager 310cause end user access to the new transaction to be restored. Inembodiments of the present invention, causing prevention and restorationare performed using a network API for the service.

In one embodiment of the present invention, operation 1020 is performedby using network API calls to quickly move a new transaction from an enduser accessible location, such as an end user's inbox, to a quarantinelocation, as soon as occurrence of the new transaction is discovered atoperation 1015.

Operation 1020 may optionally include a workflow that is triggered whena transaction is moved to a quarantine location. The workflow mayinclude causing the service to place a message in an end user accessiblelocation, such as an end user's inbox, the message including anexplanation of the quarantine operation, and some highlights from thequarantined transaction. The workflow may also or alternatively includecausing the service to provide a link enabling an end user to requestrelease of a transaction from quarantine, or receiving a request from auser to release a transaction and optionally prompting an administratorto allow or deny the user's request.

Operation 1050 may be performed using network API calls to move atransaction from a quarantine location to an end user accessiblelocation, such as an end user's inbox. Alternatively, operation 1050 maybe performed by using API calls to generate a transaction that isidentical to the quarantined transaction, and placing the thus-generatedtransaction in the end user accessible location. Operation 150 mayoptionally cause the service to add helpful text into a restoredtransaction, indicating that the transaction has been scanned andcleared.

Operation 150 may further optionally check if a transaction to berestored includes hyperlinks and, if so, re-direct the hyperlinks to asafe browsing system that scans the content of a link destination uponactivation of a hyperlink by a user, to check if the link destination issafe for browsing.

In another embodiment of the present invention, operation 1020 isperformed by setting security platform rules within the one or moredata-exchange services 220, 230 and 240, the rules causing the serviceto automatically move new transactions from end user accessiblelocations, such as end user inboxes, to quarantine locations. Thesecurity platform rules may be set manually or via network APIs. Thesecurity platform rules are created by cloud security manager 310, andset to be applied within the one or more data-exchange services. The oneor more data-exchange services apply these rules prior to placing newtransactions being in an end user's inbox.

If necessary for a particular cloud service, the security platform rulesare set up so that they do not apply again to transactions that wererestored at operation 1050. If needed, restored transactions are markedwith a special marking, and the security platform rules are defined soas to ignore transactions that are thus-marked. Furthermore, whenspecial markers are used at operation 1045, then for security purposesand as appropriate, the special markers are regularly changed from timeto time, so that if a special marker is discovered by a hacker, hecannot use it for any length of time to bypass security manager 310.

The security platform rules may optionally be set up to be fail-safe;i.e., so that the enterprise does not lose access to services 220, 230and 240 in case of a fatal failure of security manager 310.Specifically, the security platform rules may be set up so as to expireafter a short time period, such as after five minutes, or so as to applyto data during a specific short time period, such as during a fiveminute interval, and shortly before or after the end of such time periodnew security platform rules are set up for a next short time period. Assuch, if security manager 310 were to fail, then new transactions wouldnot be processed by security manager 310, and enterprise data center 100would operate as if the security layer of cloud security platform 300had not been added. Transactions being processed during failure ofsecurity manager 310 would be re-introduced to end users after the shorttime period, and the enterprise would lose access to services 220, 230and 240 for at most five minutes.

It is of advantage that the security platform rules move newtransactions to quarantine locations that are not easily accessible toend users. The quarantine locations may be, for example, in a trashfolder or a subfolder thereof. This embodiment has the advantage thatcontents of a trash folder generally go unnoticed by an end user. Thisembodiment has a further advantage that generally cloud services have avery simple API in place to restore a message from trash to its originallocation, which runs faster and scales better than restoring a messagefrom a general quarantine folder.

The quarantine locations may be, for example, within a folder that isinvisible to an end user, including inter alia a root folder, with anempty string name “ ” as its parent folder, or subfolder thereof. Thisembodiment has the advantage that the folder exists but is invisible andinaccessible to an end user.

In some embodiments of the present invention, a watch service is run,which identifies, via a network API, new transactions that are stuck inquarantine locations; i.e., transactions that were moved to a quarantinelocation at operation 1020, but that have not yet been restored atoperation 1050 after lapse of a long time, such as 15 minutes. The watchservice causes the service to move such transactions back to userinboxes, automatically and/or conditionally, based on a policyconfiguration. The watch service provides a safety precaution thatprevents a transaction from disappearing in case of an unexpected systemproblem or failure.

Reference is made to FIG. 6, which is a simplified flowchart for amethod 1100 for setting rules for cloud security, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. Method 1100 begins at optionaloperation 1110, where a special marker is assigned, for marking restoreddata transactions, which already passed inspection. At operation 1120,security platform rules are activated, with (i) expiration after a shorttime period, such as five minutes, (ii) an optional setting to ignoredata transactions that are marked with the special marker set atoperation 1110, and (iii) with an optional first priority to precede anyother rules set by an end-user but with a “no-stop” attribute so as notto preempt other rules set by an end-user. These settings ensure thatthe end users rules will be applied, but only after the securityplatform rules are applied. Regarding expiration of security platformrules, generally these rules are set so as to apply to transactions thatarrive within a specific time period, such as a 5 minute time interval.If these rules are not refreshed after the time period, then they are nolonger applied. As such, setting of their active time periodseffectively sets their expiration.

At operation 1130, a decision is performed to determine whether or notthe security platform rules have expired. If so, then the method returnsto operation 1120 to re-activate the rules for a next short period oftime. Otherwise, the method proceeds to optional operation 1140, where adecision is performed to determine whether or not the special markershould be changed. For security purposes, the special marker is changedat regular periods of time, in case a hacker reverse engineers themarker and tries to by-pass the security platform rules. If the specialmarker should be changed, then the method returns to operation 1110 tore-set the marker. Otherwise, the method returns to operation 1130.

For an e-mail service 240, operations 1020 and 1045 may comprise,respectively, inter alia one or more of the following:

-   -   (i) security manager 310 causes service 240 to prevent end user        access by causing service 240 to move the e-mail from an inbox        of an end user to a quarantine folder or quarantine mailbox, and        causes service 240 to restore end user access by causing service        240 to move the e-mail from the quarantine folder or quarantine        mailbox to the inbox of the end user;    -   (ii) security manager 310 causes service 240 to prevent end user        access by causing service 240 to remove an attachment from the        e-mail, and causes service 240 to restore end user access by        causing service 240 to reinsert the attachment into the e-mail;    -   (iii) security manager 310 causes service 240 to alter the        e-mail, e.g., by adding text like “virus alert”, so that an end        user sees the e-mail in his mailbox, but the e-mail has a        subject line or message body with warning text alerting the user        of a risk;    -   (iv) security manager 310 causes service 240 to prevent end user        access by causing service 240 to replace an attachment of the        e-mail with a substitute attachment, and causes service 240 to        restore end user access by causing service 240 to reinsert the        original attachment into the e-mail;    -   (v) security manager 310 causes service 240 to prevent end user        access by causing service 240 to encrypt an attachment of an        e-mail, and causes service 240 to restore end user access by        causing service 240 to decrypt the encrypted attachment.

For a file sharing service 230, operations 1020 and 1045 may comprise,respectively, inter alia one or more of the following:

-   -   (i) security manager 310 causes service 230 to prevent end user        access by causing service 230 to instantly alter or revoke share        access to the file, and causes service 230 to restore end user        access by causing service 230 to re-share the file with its        original recipients;    -   (ii) security manager 310 causes service 230 to prevent end user        access by causing service 230 to instantly alter or revoke        access rights to the file, and causes service 230 to restore end        user access by causing service 230 to restore access rights to        the file;    -   (iii) security manager 310 causes service 230 to prevent end        user access by causing service 230 to move the file from a main        folder to a quarantine folder, and causes service 230 to restore        end user access by causing service 230 to move the file from the        quarantine folder to the main folder;    -   (iv) security manager 310 causes service 230 to prevent end user        access by causing service 230 to instantly designate the file as        “online-only” such that the file cannot be downloaded, and        causes service 230 to restore end user access by causing service        230 to designate the file as “downloadable”;    -   (v) security manager 310 causes service 230 to prevent end user        access by causing service 230 to instantly change an end user        access level of the file so that the file is not visible to the        end user, and causes service 230 to restore end user access by        causing service 230 to restore the end user access level of the        file;    -   (vi) security manager 310 causes service 230 to prevent end user        access by causing service 230 to encrypt the file, and causes        service 230 to restore end user access by causing service 230 to        decrypt the encrypted file;    -   (vii) security manager 310 causes service 230 to prevent end        user access by causing service 230 to replace the original file        with a substitute file, and causes service 230 to restore end        user access by causing service 230 to replace the substitute        file with the original file.

Operations 1020 and 1050—Outgoing Transaction

At operation 1020, security manager 310 causes transmission of a newoutgoing transaction to be prevented, ensuring that security manager 310accesses the new transaction prior to that transaction beingtransmitted. At operation 1050, security manager 310 transmits the newtransaction to its destination. In some embodiments of the presentinvention, prevention and restoration are performed using a network APIfor the service.

Some services 220, 230 and 240 allow for “delayed sending”, setting adelay time e.g., 30 seconds, during which time an end user may canceltransmission of a data transaction. Security manager 310 may use thistime period to scan the transaction using content filters and dataleakage prevention scanners. If the transaction is discovered to violatean enterprise policy, then at operation 1020 the transaction is moved toa quarantine folder and blocked from being transmitted.

Operation 1025 (Optional)

At operation 1025, security manager optionally causes the service toalerts recipient that the new transaction has been temporarilyprevented, and that an inspection process is being performed. In oneembodiment of the present invention, causing the alerting is performedusing a network API for the service.

Operation 1025 may comprise inter alia one or more of the following:

-   -   (i) send a notification e-mail, resembling the newly arrived        e-mail, to the same recipients as those of the newly arrived        e-mail, with an explanation that the e-mail is being scanned,        and/or instructions regarding the inspection process, and        replace the notification e-mail with the newly arrived email        after the latter passes inspection;    -   (ii) attach a notification file, instead of the original        attachment, to a newly-arrived e-mail, with an explanation        and/or instructions regarding the inspection process;    -   (iii) share a file, that has similar access rights and a similar        name and folder to a newly shared file, with an explanation        and/or instructions regarding the inspection process.

It is noted that operation 1020 ensures that an end user does not have achance to interact with not-yet-inspected data, and operation 1025informs the end user that new data is currently being inspected.Operations 1020 and 1025 may occur simultaneously, before the actualinspection is conducted. Alternatively, operation 1025 may occur atanother stage in the flowchart of method 1000, and not necessarilybetween operations 1020 and 1030.

Operation 1035—Incoming Transaction

At operation 1035, data inspector 320 inspects the data of a newincoming transaction. Data inspector 320 may use any of a variety ofmanual or automated content scanning technologies, as required byenterprise 100. It is noted that operation 1035 does not need to beperformed on-the-fly in real time, since end uses cannot interact withthe data being inspected during operation 1035.

Reference is made to FIG. 7, which is a screen shot of a security stackinterface, showing a configuration of cloud services and datainspectors, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.For each of a plurality of cloud services, such as services 220, 230 and240, an administrator selects which of a plurality of commercial contentscanners are applied to that service. The configuration is displayed asa matrix for which each row is a different service, including interalia:

-   -   BOX® of Box.net, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif., USA,    -   GMAIL® of Google, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., USA,    -   OFFICE 365® One Drive of Microsoft Corporation of Redmond,        Wash., USA, OFFICE 3 6 5® E-mail of Microsoft Corporation of        Redmond, Wash., USA,    -   DROPBOX® of Dropbox, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif., USA,    -   GOOGLE® Drive developed by Google Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.,        USA,    -   SLACK® developed by Slack Technologies, Inc. of San Francisco,        Calif., USA,    -   AMAZON® S3 cloud storage developed by Amazon Technologies,

Inc. of Reno, Nev., USA, and

-   -   EGNYTE® of Egnyte Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., USA, and    -   SHAREFILE® by Citrix Systems Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., USA.        Each column is a different content scanner, SCN1, SCN2, . . . ,        SCN 15. The content scanners may include inter alia:    -   SOPHOS® developed by Sophos plc Corporation of Oxfordshire,        England,    -   CHECK POINT® developed by Checkpoint Software Technologies of        Tel Aviv, Israel,    -   AHNLAB® developed by Ahnlab, Inc. of South Korea,    -   AVG® developed by AVG Netherlands B.V. of Amsterdam,    -   AVIRA® developed by Avira Operations GmbH of Germany,    -   BITDEFENDER® developed by Bitdefender IPR Management Ltd. of        Cyprus,    -   ESET® developed by Eset spol. s. r. o. Corporation of Bratislava        Slovakia,    -   KASPERSKY developed by Kaspersky Lab of Moscow, Russia,    -   F-PROT® developed by Cyren Inc. of McLean, Va., USA,    -   CYANCE® developed by Cylance Inc., of Irvine, Calif., USA, and    -   SYMANTEC® developed by Symantec Corporation of Mountain View,        Calif., USA.

Reference is made to FIGS. 8-13, which are respective screen shots ofdashboards displaying results of several content scanners for six cloudservices (Google Drive, Box.net, Office 365 One Drive, Office 365E-mail, Gmail and Dropbox), in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 8 shows a dashboard console for Google Drive, displaying statisticsof overall traffic and malicious content in a Security Stack zone,showing that Scanner #1 found 62 suspicious files out of a total of 215files, Scanner #2 found 2 suspicious files out of the 215 files, Scanner#3 found 63 suspicious files out of the 215 files, Scanner #4 found 66suspicious files out of the 215 files, and Scanner #5 found 69suspicious files out of the 215 files.

FIG. 9 shows a dashboard console for Box.net, displaying statistics ofoverall traffic and malicious content in a Security Stack zone, showingthat Scanner #1 found 41 suspicious files out of a total of 382 files,Scanner #2 found 16 suspicious files out of the 382 files, Scanner #3found 38 suspicious files out of the 382 files, Scanner #4 found 55suspicious files out of the 382 files, and Scanner #5 found 67suspicious files out of the 382 files.

FIG. 10 shows a dashboard console for Office 365 One Drive, displayingstatistics of overall traffic and malicious content in a Security Stackzone, showing that Scanner #1 found 1 suspicious file out of a total of112 files, Scanner #2 found 1 suspicious file out of the 112 files,Scanner #3 found no suspicious files out of the 112 files, Scanner #4found 3 suspicious files out of the 112 files, Scanner #5 found 1suspicious file out of the 112 files, Scanner #6 found 1 suspicious fileout of the 112 files, Scanner #7 found 3 suspicious files out of the 112files, Scanner #8 found 2 suspicious files out of the 112 files, Scanner#9 found no suspicious files out of the 112 files, and Scanner #10 found3 suspicious files out of the 112 files.

FIG. 11 shows a dashboard console for Office 365 E-mail, displayingstatistics of overall traffic and malicious content in a Security Stackzone, showing that Scanner #1 found 18 suspicious e-mails out of a totalof 19,018 e-mails, Scanner #2 found 18 suspicious e-mails out of the19,018 e-mails, Scanner #3 found 29 suspicious e-mails out of the 19,018e-mails, Scanner #4 found 280 suspicious e-mails out of the 19,018e-mails, Scanner #5 found 31 suspicious e-mails out of the 19,018e-mails, Scanner #6 found 29 suspicious e-mails out of the 19,018e-mails, Scanner #7 found 297 suspicious e-mails out of the 19,018e-mails, Scanner #8 found 280 suspicious e-mails out of the 19,018e-mails, Scanner #9 found 29 suspicious e-mails out of the 19,018e-mails, and Scanner #10 found 300suspicious e-mails out of the 19,018e-mails.

FIG. 12 shows a dashboard console for Gmail, displaying statistics ofoverall traffic and malicious content in a Security Stack zone, showingthat Scanner #1 found 1 suspicious e-mail out of a total of 409 e-mails,Scanner #2 found no suspicious e-mails out of the 409 e-mails, Scanner#3 found no suspicious e-mails out of the 409 e-mails, Scanner #4 found323 suspicious e-mails out of the 409 e-mails, and Scanner #5 found 16suspicious e-mails out of the 409 e-mails, Scanner #6 found 16suspicious e-mails out of the 409 e-mails, Scanner #7 found 339suspicious e-mails out of the 409 e-mails, Scanner #8 found 323suspicious e-mails out of the 409 e-mails, Scanner #9 found nosuspicious e-mails out of the 409 e-mails, and Scanner #10 found 59suspicious e-mails out of the 409 e-mails.

FIG. 13 shows a dashboard console for Dropbox, displaying statistics ofoverall traffic and malicious content in a Security Stack zone, showingthat no files were processed.

Reference is made to FIG. 14, which is a screen shot of a main dashboarddisplaying overall results for several cloud services, in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 14 shows a dashboardvisualization of statistics of overall traffic, malicious contentblocked, and data-loss prevention (DLP). Specifically, FIG. 14 indicatesa total of 6,261 malicious files, and 365 malicious incoming files; atotal of 1,066 files with data leaks, and 445 outgoing files with dataleaks.

Reference is made to FIG. 15, which is a screen shot of an analyticsinterface for cloud services, in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. FIG. 15 shows results of a queries submitted by anadministrator. Specifically, FIG. 15 indicates 2 driver's license filesshared externally on Box.net, 34 credit card numbers shared externallyon Google Drive, 44 company confidential files on Box.net, etc.

Reference is made to FIGS. 16, which is a screen shot of an alertsinterface for cloud services, in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. FIG. 16 shows visualizations of statistics of alertsmade by security manager 310. Specifically, FIG. 16 indicates 11,676alerts of which 9,266 are of high severity, 2,287 are of mediumseverity, 65 are of low severity, and 58 are of no severity; 11,675 ofthe alerts are new alerts, and 1 alert is dismissed; 6,333 of the alertsare from Amazon S3 cloud, 210 of the alerts are from Slack, 2,352 of thealerts are from Microsoft Office 365 e-mails, 406 of the alerts are fromEgnyte, 613 of the alerts are from Gmail, 1,315 of the alerts are fromBox.net, and 447 of the alerts are from Google drive.

Operation 1035—Outgoing Transaction

At operation 1035, data inspector 320 inspects the data of a newoutgoing transaction. Data inspector 320 may use any of a variety ofmanual or automated data leakage protection technologies, as required byenterprise 100.

Operation 1055

At operation 1055, security manager 310 causes the service to perform aremedial action vis-à-vis the new transaction. In one embodiment of thepresent invention, causing of the remedial action is performed using anetwork API for the service.

Operation 1055 may comprise inter alia one or more of the following:

-   -   (i) causing the service to permanently prevent end user access        to the data of the transaction;    -   (ii) causing the service to replace the data of the transaction        with modified data;    -   (iii) causing the service to alerts an administrator of        enterprise 100.

In addition, security manager 310 may conducts an analysis the data ofthe transaction possibly via a security analysis cloud service.

Policy Enforcement

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that, in addition toscanning of content for data transactions, cloud security platform 300provides security policy enforcement for enterprise 100.

Reference is made to FIGS. 17-20, which are self-explanatory simplifieddrawings of various policies enforced by cloud security system 300, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 shows a policy for data leakage scan and protection.

FIG. 18 shows a policy for malware protection.

FIG. 19 shows a policy for compliance enforcement for Saas login, usingcloud security platform 300 as a single sign-on (SSO) proxy and usingthe EPOLICY ORCHESTRATOR® (ePO) developed by McAfee, Inc. of SantaClara, Calif.

FIG. 20 shows a policy for detection of anomalies including dataleakage, internal threats, administrative breaches and lost devices.

Reference is made to FIGS. 21-26, which are self-explanatory simplifieddrawings of various workflows performed by cloud security system 300, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 shows a workflow for time limits of external sharing.

FIG. 22 shows a workflow for consent of sharing data with externalusers.

FIG. 23 shows a workflow for external users offloading data.

FIG. 24 shows a workflow for forwarding of shared content.

FIG. 25 shows a workflow for termination of an enterprise employeeincluding operations of blocking the employee login to enterpriseservices, un-sharing that employee's externally shared files, and remotewiping of that employee's synchronized files.

FIG. 26 shows a workflow for backup and version management.

Implementation Details

Appendix A includes a listing with APIs for implementing an embodimentof the present invention, for specific use with Microsoft Office 365 andGoogle Gmail. Appendix A is structured as follows.

OFFICE 365

-   -   1. API for obtaining internal user data        -   Example of obtaining internal user data    -   2. API for managing rules        -   Example of rule creation        -   Example of rule removal    -   3. API for creating a folder    -   4. API for subscribing to web notification    -   5. API for downloading a message/attachment    -   6. API for moving a message to Inbox (release)    -   7. API for quarantining a message to Inbox (quarantine        -   Example of quarantining a message    -   8. API for restoring a message to Inbox (restore)        -   Example of restoring a message

GMAIL

-   -   1. Creating an API object    -   2. API for obtaining user data    -   3. API for managing rules    -   4. API for creating labels    -   5. API for subscribing to notifications    -   6. API for reading emails from notifications    -   7. API for downloading attachments    -   8. API for changing labels (release)    -   9. API for quarantine and admin notification

Advantages

It will thus be appreciate by those skilled in the art that embodimentsof the present invention provide the following advantages vis-à-visconventional enterprise security systems. Because these embodiments arenetwork-API-based, then do not rely on a proxy and are not inline. Theyare immediately deployable and do not require changes to an enterprisenetwork configuration, nor to the end user experience.

-   -   These embodiments effectively block transactions in real-time        without being inline.    -   These embodiments apply to remote data services, cloud-based        services, and SaaS applications not under control of the        enterprise.    -   These embodiments do not alter flow of data over a network, and        thus do not adversely impact other functional components such as        spam-filters, firewalls, routers and proxy servers.    -   These embodiments do not adversely impact latency and        responsiveness of services 220, 230 and 240.    -   These embodiments are transparent to end users, because their        transactions are restored immediately upon completion of        inspection.    -   These embodiments allow participants to partially continue a        transaction while inspection of the sensitive components is        taking place. For example, an email message will be available        while its original attachments are being scanned.    -   These embodiments are fail-safe, and if security manager 310        fails, the flow of data continues normally. By not proxying        traffic and being fail-safe, these embodiments do not introduce        any new points of failure.    -   These embodiments use network-APIs provided by services 220, 230        and 240, thus not requiring reverse-engineering, and not        breaking support contracts.    -   These embodiments use the same configuration and network        infrastructure for monitoring/detection and blocking/prevention.        As such, the enterprise may start with detection and upgrade to        prevention, by changing the configuration of cloud security        platform 300, without requiring changes to enterprise networks        or to enterprise systems.    -   These embodiments may be selectively applied to specific users,        so that they ignore other users. This has a clear advantage over        proxy solutions, which proxy data for all users even if only a        few users are being protected.    -   These embodiments are scalable for large enterprises.

In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described withreference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will, however,be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to thespecific exemplary embodiments without departing from the broader spiritand scope of the invention. Accordingly, the specification and drawingsare to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A data security system, comprising: a securitymanager computer making network application programming interface (API)calls to a service that performs data-exchange transactions for endusers, the API calls remotely controlling the service so that thesecurity manager computer accesses an outgoing transaction that hasalready entered the cloud-based service, by generating one or moresecurity platform rules that are applied by the service and cause theservice to automatically transmit the outgoing transaction to aninspection location prior to transmission of the outgoing transaction toa destination; and a data inspector operative to inspect data of theoutgoing transaction in the inspection location for data leakage,wherein said security manager computer further controls the service soas to transmit the outgoing transaction to the destinations when saiddata inspector clears the data, and to perform a remedial actionregarding the outgoing transaction when said data inspector does notclear the data.
 22. The system of claim 21 wherein the remedial actioncomprises one or more of the following: (i) permanently preventtransmission of the outgoing transaction, (ii) replace the data of theoutgoing transaction with modified data, (iii) notify a sender of theoutgoing transaction that the transaction cannot be transmitted to itsdestination, (iv) alert an administrator.
 23. A method for datasecurity, comprising: making network application programming interface(API) calls, by a security processor, to a cloud-based service thatperforms data-exchange transactions for end users, the API callsremotely controlling the service; controlling the service, by thesecurity processor via the API calls, so that the security processoraccesses an outgoing transaction that has already entered thecloud-based service, prior to transmission of the outgoing transactionto a destination; inspecting data of the outgoing transaction for dataleakage; when said inspecting clears the data, then further controllingthe service, by the security processor, to transmit the outgoingtransaction to its destination; and when said inspecting does not clearthe data, causing, by the security processor, the service to perform aremedial action regarding the outgoing transaction.
 24. The method ofclaim 23 wherein said controlling the service comprises generating oneor more security platform rules that are applied by the service andcause the service to automatically move the outgoing transaction to aninspection location, prior to transmission of the outgoing transactionto the destination.
 25. The method of claim 24 wherein causing theservice to perform a remedial action comprises causing the service to:(i) permanently prevent transmission of the outgoing transaction; (ii)replace the data of the outgoing transaction with modified data; (iii)notify a sender of the outgoing transaction that the transaction cannotbe transmitted to its destination; or (iv) alert an administrator.